Looking for a bargain in wine? Go to France next year during supermarket wine fairs, or Foire aux Vins, where you can pick up some top wines at rock bottom prices.

For example, this year a bottle of Chateau Lafite Rothschild was sold in the supermarkets for as low as $182 (in the U.S. it would be about $600 or more), according to terra.net.

The only problem was that wine merchants were going from store to store, snatching up the best wines before ordinary consumers could get to them. As a result, some stores put a limit of two on the number of bottles purchased.

About 25 percent of all wine in France is sold at these fairs — one supermarket executive said, “We generally sell about 5 million bottles during the two-week wine fair.”

(It may be good for consumers, but chateau owners aren’t happy about them — they say the fairs are not fair.)

Keeping out the drunks

Temecula Valley wineries are serious about keeping drunk and disorderly patrons away. Starting Nov. 1, van and limousine drivers who do not help keep their passengers under control will be turned away.

They’re calling it the Responsible Partner Program. “Those who do not abide by certain rules and regulations we have established will not be allowed to visit our wineries,” said Ray Faulkner, president of the Temecula Valley Winegrowers Association.

He said about a dozen transportation companies have already agreed to follow the code of conduct which discourages disruptive visitors who abuse alcohol and the drivers who encourage that kind of behavior.

(Nothing was said about those who drive their own cars.)

Powdered booze

Some Dutch students have shown some ingenuity, but the result may be questionable to many folks. They’ve developed powdered booze as part of their senior project and are marketing it under the name Booze2Go, directing it at the youth market.

According to jointogether.org, it comes in a two-ounce packet that is mixed with water to produce a fizzy lime-flavored beverage containing 3 percent alcohol.

“They (the youth market) are really more into it because you can compare it with Bacardi mixed drinks,” said Harm van Elderen, who led the team. Another member said, “Because the alcohol is not in liquid form, we can sell it to people below 16 (under Dutch law).”

(They might be able to avoid paying alcohol taxes for the same reason.)

Jesus wine

First it was Hitler’s face appearing on a wine label, and now it’s the image of Jesus Christ.

According to luxist.com, a wine importer is bringing in a brand from Israel called Grapes of Galilee, made from grapes grown in the region where Jesus is believed to have lived, and irrigated with water from the Jordan River, where he was baptized.  

While most wine from Israel is aimed at the Jewish community, the Web site said this one will be marketed in areas with high concentrations of Catholics. It comes in chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon and merlot, and sells for $13.99 online.

(Let’s hope the next celebrity wine to come out won’t be Britney Spears.)

Bottle shortage

The consolidation of distributors has caused distribution problems for many wineries, especially small ones, but consolidation of a different sort has plagued European vintners.

According to forbes.com, “due to restructuring, the number of bottle-makers supplying the European market has shrunk from 60 to 3.”

The European Commission acknowledged it has received a complaint from wine and spirits importers and distributors against the bottle manufacturers.

Also in the world of bottles, U.K. retailers will save about 6,700 tons of glass next year by putting about 90 million bottles of their branded wine in lighter-weight glass.

(Maybe they’ll start using more of the tetra-paks and other paper-based packages. But then that will mean cutting down trees.)

Choosing a wine label

The label on Calistoga’s Clos Pegase Hommage reserve cabernet sauvignon changes from year to year because owner Jan Shrem chooses a painting from his extensive personal art collection to reproduce on the bottle.

This year he decided he needed some help in making the selection for the 2006 Hommage – he invited some wine writers to taste some library wines, then the 2006 barrel sample and asked them for their advice.

No decision was reached that day, but you can be sure that the writers all will be looking for that label when the wine is released.

(First they’re wine critics, now art critics. Soon they’ll be movie critics, with a couple movies coming out about the 1976 Paris Tasting.)

Quote of the week

“Wisdom doesn’t automatically come with old age. Nothing does — except wrinkles. It’s true, some wines improve with age. But only if the grapes were good in the first place.” — Abigail Van Buren